Innocent Kiss
by crimeson-plasma
Summary: When bored Sabo get's the wonderful idea to play 'Truth or Dare' with Luffy, but will this decision end well for poor Ace? Cuteness and Acelu.
1. Chapter 1

Here is a little something that just came into my mind! It's mostly a vague try at humour and plain cuteness! It is also based in the Sabo ark, so there aren't any major spoilers. Anyways, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece

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How had this all happened? It all had a very simple explanation. Yes, a very, very, very simple explanation.

It all had started when Luffy and I had accidentally been caught by Ace for the who knows what time talking about Gold Roger. We wouldn't really help it, since we both admired him quite a bit, especially Luffy, but Ace never really liked us to talk about his father. Ace was probably going to tell us something about fighting each other again. I could notice just by seeing the excited grin that was painted on his face then, but after he had heard us talking about the former pirate king he had shouted something about respect and then stormed off quite angry. Luffy had tried to stop him and muttered something else about how he shouldn't be upset that Ace completely ignored, leaving Luffy on the verge of tears. Now I was sitting on top of a random tree branch, right on top of Luffy who was whining about being bored, staring at people pass.

I soon noticed a man chasing a woman around, a bit far away. Probably because of some discussion, it was quite frequent to see it here really. I could see her almost crying and visibly angry, and the man desperately trying to explain himself. I continued watching them quite bored, not really knowing what else to do. The woman then turned around and asked something, that made the man react quickly, answer something and then kiss her. I blushed lightly at this. I had never ever seen someone kiss another person. Never. Then the man and the woman, after muttering something else became happy again and went away to somewhere. I continued then stared at a random point for some point until I heard Luffy telling me something.

"Sabo, I'm bored. Can we do something fun?" He asked with a tone of voice quite similar to his wining one.

I climbed down the tree branch and looked at Luffy. "Sure, why not?" I said. "But what could we do?" I asked aloud.

Luffy started thinking. "Can you chose the game? I can't think of anything. I'm too bored" Luffy said.

I nodded and continued thinking deeply about something fun until I suddenly remembered a game that I had played a long time ago with Ace for five minutes, until he got bored. I still remembered the rules too. "I know!" I said, suddenly shouted.

"What game, what game?" Luffy asked, visibly excited.

"We're going to play 'truth or dare'" I said with a smile on my face. Yes, this was bound to be fun.

"What is that game?" Luffy asked.

"What? You don't know?" I asked him

Luffy shook his head. "No, never played it" He said.

"Okay, then let me explain you" I said. I took a breath in and prepared myself to explain the game to Luffy. "We must ask each other whether to do a 'truth' or a dare'" I started saying "If the person asked chooses 'truth' then they must answer the other person's question telling the complete truth. If they chose 'dare' they must do something that the other person tells them" I said.

Luffy looked at me for several moments, as he processed the information. It took him a surprisingly short time, considering how bad my explanation had been.

"Okay! let's play then" He said, with an excited tone of voice.

We then went towards the tree trunk and sat there, each one in front of the other. "I'll start, since I proposed the game" I said. Luffy nodded to this in agreement. "Okay Luffy, so chose: Truth or dare?" I asked him.

Luffy thought about which one to chose for several seconds. "Truth" He finally said.

I grinned and thought the question I would ask him. I knew it has his first time, but I didn't want to be too nice either. I ended up deciding to be nice. "If you woke up one day and notice, that you are invisible, then what will be the first thing that you would like to do?" I asked him.

Luffy smild. "Fight either you or Ace!" He said "And defeat you with my invisibility!" He finished saying with a huge grin on his face.

I laughed. "I think that we would still beat you though" I said, remembering all the times Luffy had been defeated

"That's not true!" Luffy said, with a frown. I could only laugh more.

"Anyways Luffy, it's your turn now" I said.

Luffy nodded excitedly. "Sabo, truth or dare?" He asked, with a huge mischievous grin painted on his face. I wondered what he had planned exactly.

"Dare" I replied. I would never ever chose truth. That was for cowards.

Luffy's grin only was made bigger with my answer. I now shuddered. What had he planned to make me do? "Sabo, you have to play 'join the dot's' with Ace's freckles" Luffy said, with now a devilish grin.

Blood left my face. "W-what? You can't be serious!" I said. Ace would be very angry if he caught me doing that, and he was already angry enough. Luffy shook his head, repeated me the rules I had said, and told me again what I had to do. I went away defeated, thinking of a plan and noticing that Luffy went after me, with a curious face.

I quickly got hold of a marker and went towards where Ace was. When I saw him I was immediately relieved. "He is asleep! Thank god!" I thought, extremely relieved. I went towards my brother and quickly prepared the marker as I got closer and closer to his face. I then started drawing random things, slightly snickering as I saw how Ace's face was ending up looking like. He had some cat whiskers, a hat, a very weird drawing that was supposed to be a dog, a small heart... I was almost finished when I heard Ace's voice.

"Sabo, what exactly are you doing?" Ace asked, clearly annoyed.

"What? Oh I..." I started saying, as I tried to contain my laughter. I could hear Luffy laughing from a distance too. Ace was staring at me, at first wondering what I was doing, but then he saw the marker on my hands and he realised why I was almost laughing.

"Sabo!" He shouted quite angry, as he got up and started chasing me. I jumped on my feet and ran away, as I still heard Luffy laughing hard. "He is going to suffer next one" I thought to myself as I tried to escape Ace by all means possible. I soon managed to do it, I was not too sure how, and then went back to where Luffy was.

"It's my turn now Luffy" I said. "Truth or dare?" I asked.

Luffy replied quickly this time. "Dare" He said.

"Perfect. Luffy, go and run around as if you were a gorilla for ten minutes" I commanded. I saw Luffy look to the ground as he walked away, but not too bothered. "I must think of something better" I silently told myself.

Ten minutes later Luffy came back, with a smile on his face again ad not bothered or embarrassed at all. "Sabe, truth or dare?" I heard him ask.

"Dare" I replied.

"Talk straight for five minutes to the first person you find around here" He said. I was shocked. That little devil!

I went away, hoping that I did not find anyone, but I was wrong, and I soon encountered a man walking around with a worried face. He saw me and said hi. I said the same thing and then started talking, knowing that Luffy was probably around somewhere laughing very hard.

When I went back to where Luffy was I had quite a big bump on the head, courtesy of the man I had had the joy of annoying for five minutes straight.

"Luffy, truth or dare?" I asked my younger brother.

"Dare" Luffy said with a smile.

I then started thinking of something good and embarrassing that he could do. "I can't think of anything!" I thought desperately as I felt Luffy's bored look on my face. It was then when I remembered. The man and that woman!

I got up with a grin on my face. "Luffy, you must kiss Ace" I said with a devilish grin on my face. This would completely destroy him! I knew it would! Luffy got up, not too bothered t first. "But Luffy, it must be on the lips" I then added "Not on his cheeks" .

Luffy's eyes widened as he realised what I had asked and it's meaning. "What! No way!" He said, horrified.

"You must do it, it's truth or dare after all" I said quite happily.

Luffy's smile suddenly disappeared and he turned around and went away looking at the floor. "Okay" He said quietly. I snickered as I followed him. No way in hell I was going to miss this!

Luffy started searching for Ace, and soon found him... beside the river, cleaning his face and trying to erase all the drawings that I had bade. I could see him visibly angry and muttering something, that probably was like "Stupid Sabo". Luffy went to his side and sat down making Ace turn around and look at him.

"What do you want Luffy?" He asked.

Luffy muttered something under his breath and then went forwards and kissed Ace on his lips for a very short time. I immediately saw Ace become completely still and blush madly as he stared at Luffy as he came closer to him, gave him an innocent kiss and then ran away. He continued staring at the place where Luffy had been for several minutes more as he processed what had happened, with the blush still on his face the whole time. He then shook his head and sat down, staring at the river with that blush still on his face. "I bet Luffy is blushing even harder than him" I thought with a snicker. Ace then turned around as he heard me snicker, completely forgetting that I had painted his face.

"So Ace, did you like that?" I asked teasingly and almost laughing.

Ace's face turned even redder and he got up, prepared to chase me around all he wanted. "Sabo!" He shouted, not managing to get rid of that blush.

I started running around, and several minutes after starting to be chased I saw out of the corner of my eyes Luffy sitting down beside a tree with a blush on his face staring at the sky. I ran towards Luffy, who didn't even respond to my presence, but looked at Ace, that was then chasing me around. He then blushed harder and hid behind the tree he was previously sitting by. Ace did the exact same thing. I laughed loudly and walked away.


	2. Chapter 2

Here is part two! I didn't plan on making a past two for this fanfic, but after being asked by some people I decided to do one ^_^ I hope you enjoy it! I did it as best as I could (since at first I had no idea what to make this about). Well, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece

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Of course I was shocked, just to say the least. I didn't know how to react how my cry-baby younger brother kissed me. And it wasn't any kiss. it was a kiss on the _lips_. My younger brother had kissed _me_ on the _lips_. How was I supposed to react? It was impossible for me to act normally with Luffy now. Completely impossible. I just got far too nervous around him, and I knew he was too. He had _stolen_ my first kiss, L_uffy_ had stolen my first kiss. It had been completely unexpected from my baby brother and it had made me a bundle of nerves all the time. I couldn't face Luffy now without blushing madly or start stuttering, and I knew the same thing happened to Luffy. A thick and suffocating tension had taken over the atmosphere around us all the time when we were in the same room or simply close by. We hadn't trained or fought each other in a week, since that had happened, and this also referred to Sabo, who was already fed up with the whole situation and the way we were acting. He had described us as acting like "Shy and lovesick teenage girls", which had earned a punch from me.

Right now I was sitting alone on the floor of out secret base, thinking. Sabo and Luffy had gone hunting, and I had told them that I didn't feel too good and that I preferred to stay in our secret base. It was true, in a way. I had a strange sick feeling in my stomach, but I knew that I wasn't sick or going to be anytime soon, so why was I feeling like this? Why was a acting like a lovesick teenage girl when I was with Luffy? Why did I keep blushing? Why? It was stupid, and Luffy had done it because of that stupid game too, but why did I still feel weird when I was near him? and why was he acting apparently in the exact same way?

"This is stupid" I muttered then, as I continued thinking. I was trying to put my thoughts in order and discover the exact cause as to why this was happening, but I had only managed to get an enormous headache because of it. I really needed a female friend right now with which I could sort my thoughts. I desperately needed something like that, but I knew that I had no one to talk about of something like this except Dadan, who I didn't trust and was completely out of the question or that Makino that Luffy liked so much, but I didn't know her much either. I sighed as I went back to the vicious circle of thinking that I had been trapped in for since before my two brothers had gone to hunt, which worsened my already big headache.

It was hours later, when it was already night time, when Luffy and Sabo came back from hunting. They were both struggling to bring up a crocodile that was quite big and that they had caught. They were visibly exhausted, and I could see several light wounds on their body, which made me worry a bit. Sabo and Luffy were both laughing and smiling as they went into the room, but as soon as they were inside Luffy stopped doing that, looked at me for a millisecond and then stared at the floor. Sabo continued laughing for a bit, but soon stopped as he felt again that suffocating atmosphere that had taken over the room again.

"We brought dinner" He said, as he and Luffy left the crocodile on the floor.

I nodded, and soon we all started preparing dinner in complete silence, again, and with that atmosphere that the three of us hated so much.

Dinner passed very quickly, and before the three of us knew it we were all lying on the floor on our 'beds'. We were all sleeping in the same positions that we had been sleeping in before, me in the centre with both Sabo ad Luffy at my sides. Sabo was already asleep, and so was Luffy. I yawned and I soon fell asleep, completely exhausted.

I woke up hours later, when I heard a sob coming from above, where we had built that lookout tower that imitated the one on boats. I looked around me, and saw that Sabo was still sleeping, while Luffy was not in his 'bed'. I immediately grew worried over my younger brother. Why was he crying? Was he okay? I went upstairs quickly, forgetting completely the fact that we hadn't talked to each other for a week. I arrived there in no time, and I saw Luffy leaning against one of the walls sitting with his knees in front of his face and him crying like this. I hasd never seen him like this since I had known him. Not once, and seeing him like this made me sad too, surprisingly for me. Luffy was completely unaware of my presence right now.

"Luffy" I said, with almost audible whisper.

Only then Luffy realised that I was on the lookout tower with him, and as soon as I had said his name he turned around towards me and stared at me with scared eyes. I lost my breath for a moment as I suddenly remembered again the whole of this week and how it had passed by. Luffy was clearly surprised, and he continued looking at me as tears still fell down from his eyes. I had grown so accustomed to see him smiling all the time that I had totally forgotten that he was capable of emotions like these.

"Why are you crying?" I asked him, again in a barely audible whisper, as I sat down next to Luffy.

Luffy turned away for a bit, and looked in the opposite direction, not answering.

"Lu, you know that you can trust me" I then said, as I started staring at the stars that covered all the sky.

Luffy then looked at me for a few moments, as if deciding if he could trust me. "I had a bad dream..." He started saying. I looked up at him and stared at his eyes, silently telling him to go on. I then felt myself blush a little, and feel that tension that had been around us the rest of the week. "You hate me, don't you Ace?" Luffy suddenly asked. I was surprised by this, I didn't expect this at all. "You hate me for being weak, not fighting well and for k-k-kissing y-you" Luffy then managed to say with several stutters as he started crying loudly again. "and you would leave alone again because of that" He then finished saying.

I stared at him with shock as he continued crying. I didn't expect this in the least. He was weak and he didn't fight well, and it had annoyed me that he had kissed me like that, but that was not it. I didn't hate him, definitely now. I liked him quite a lot, he always managed to brighten my day in some way or another all the time after all, and yet I knew that this also wasn't it wither, so what was it then? I could also only help but wonder what exactly he had dreamt exactly.

"I don't hate you Lu" I said then, confident with my answer, as I looked at the stars again.

Luffy continued crying. "Yes you do! Because I, because I...!" He started saying, not managing to finish the phrase.

"Lu, I don't hate you, in fact I..." I then started saying, but didn't managed to express how I really liked my younger brother and how he was a great friend that I really appreciated having.

Luffy continued crying, opening his mouth as he tried to say something but didn't manage to. Suddenly I realised what he had dreamt about. He had dreamt that he was left alone because I hated him. What had I done?

"Lu, I will never leave you" I thensaid, as I pulled him intoa hug.

"B-but I" He started saying.

"It wasn't that bad, besides..." I started saying, with a light blush on my face. "What would I be without you?" I then finished saying, as I continued hugging Luffy, feeling my heart beating fast. Luffy smiled, with another light blush on his face, and the snuggled against me, soon falling asleep. I remained like that for a long time, staring at the stars and trying to find a reason for my fast beating heart. Suddenly I noticed a presence coming from the stairs that led to here. I turned around and looked at Sabo, who was grinning mischievously at me, laughing inside by how I had suddenly become so affectionate with Luffy. I stuck out my tongue at him and then decided to ignore him, as I continued trying to find answers and while I suggled lightly with Luffy too.

Next week I finally got my answer when I asked Makino. She told me it was love.


	3. Chapter 3

Fun fact: I started writing this chapter without having the slightest idea what to write about, and surprisingly it has ended up being quite a long one and quite nice considering that I started it without knowing a thing about the plot. Well, I hope you like this one ^^ Thank you all for your reviews, favs and alerts! I'm glad that you liked the previous two chapters. I don't know if I will make this the last chapter. Maybe it will be, maybe not. I won't say anything since the two first chapters were supposed to be the last chapters, so expect probably another chapter for this in some time, we'll see.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Years had passed since that had first happened, and we had stopped talking about it, product of a silent agreement. More precisely five years had passed, but even though this wasn't talked about I still remembered what had happened fondly though, the stolen kiss that Luffy had surprisingly done and what later had come, including the discovery of my feelings t o him, which had taken sometime to accept. Sometimes I wondered if Sabo had explicitly planned for this to happen, since as far as I knew it was him who dared Luffy to kiss me, but it was my younger brother the one that had kissed me in the end. "Probably not" I thought, as I continued staring at the sky that slowly became clearer and clearer as the sun rose. Sometimes I wondered what Luffy thought of what had happened, but I would never dare to ask him, I don't know if out of fear of receiving a negative reply or out of many other factors that I didn't like such as him liking someone else or not remembering what had happened.

I got up from where I was currently sitting at, that was on the ground near Dadan's house leaning against a nearby tree, and then looked around, expecting Luffy to soon come of Dadan's house, like he always did. I grinned as seconds later, when the sun was already up, Luffy dashed out of the house.

"You're here Ace!" Luffy said with a grin, as he ran towards me.

"Where else would I be at?" I immediately replied with a slightly mean tone of voice, looking at Luffy for several seconds before turning around in a fake insulted manner.

Luffy laughed, understanding that I was faking this and then asked where we would be going today.

I soon replied that to eat something inside the city filled only by nobles and other elitist people, like we had done so many times, and we soon started making our way towards the city, and before I knew we had already reached a restaurant and we were eating what was supposed to be our breakfast. In no time we had already rushed out of the restaurant, without paying of course, thanked them for the meal even though we gave them no money, and were running out of the city, chased by the guards that had seen us escape so many times and that were probably fed up of us.

Several minutes after managing to get rid of those guards, losing some and defeating those that had managed to keep up to us, we walked calmly through the terminal gray towards the place where we always fought. Luffy and I were animatedly chatting, or rather, Luffy was animatedly chatting while I replied to whatever he was saying from time to time. I was mostly looking at him, in deep thoughts and suddenly becoming aware of what he was saying after some seconds. Luffy was grinning in that way that he always grinned and laughing from time to time. I was amazed by how much he had changed physically. He was taller, stronger, and no longer had the face of a child, but one of a pre-teen. However he still was the exact same person he was when he was seven years old and I had first met him. It amazed me how he always managed to laugh so much and be so cheerful. I was fifteen years old by now, and Luffy was twelve, and y et it still felt like it still was five years ago, when we ran around the place with Sabo.

When we finally arrived to the place where we usually trained at we immediately started fighting each other. We now fought 100 times with each other, since it had been 50 times with the other two brothers when Sabo was still around and we still planned on maintaining that quantity of fights going on. Luffy still hadn't managed to defeat me, no matter how much he tried, but I had to admit that he now was better in fighting while using his powers, something that he had managed to accomplish not so long ago. He now could punch someone from a distance, and he was starting to practice doing the same using his legs to kick, but he hadn't managed that though yet. This had made have to start to move around more to avoid or try to avoid the powerful blows that I sometimes received, but never managed to make me be defeated.

"100th fight" I said, as I got into a defensive stance.

"I will defeat you this time!" Luffy shouted, as he got into an aggressive stance. I was amazed by how he managed to remain so optimistic after being defeated so many times per day. It was amazing, not that I would say this of course.

The fight started, and Luffy soon made longer his arms and grabbed to a nearby branch, and the jumped towards me, probably trying to be catapulted towards me. I maintained my defensive position, prepared to end the fight as soon as he was close enough. However something soon went wrong, as it was expected of Luffy, and instead of being launched towards me at a great speed Luffy was launched upwards, in a random direction.

"Waaaaaaaaaaah!" I heard Luffy shout, as he went flying away.

"Luffy!" I shouted as I looked at my little brother getting further and further away. I climbed a tree in no time, and soon discovered towards where he had been launched.

"Fuschia village" I thought, as I climbed down the tree and started running towards the village that we visited from time to time, ignoring what that old fart said.

Some time passed until I reached the village, time during which I couldn't help but thinking how stupid Luffy could be for not realising things like these and trying new things randomly. "That idiot" I thought, once I finally arrived to the village.

I started going through the few streets of the village, looking for Luffy. Could he have fallen into the water? Was he hurt? As I continued walking and then running millions of worried thoughts went through my head. Soon I found the place where Luffy had landed, that was near the outskirts of the village, and this was very recognisable by the quite big hole that had been left behind by Luffy. I started looking around me, searching for my little brother, and it was then when my eyes landed on Makino's bar.

"How could I not think of that before?" I thought as I went towards the bar and entered it. By then the sun was starting to go down, and it would soon be night time.

I looked inside, and saw that it was the bar was almost empty, with only two people that had drunk too much and a couple kissing each other. I went towards Makino as I ignored the couple, that were constantly telling each other how much they loved each other and kissing each other every now and then.

"Makino, has Luffy been here?" i asked the woman that I had ended up knowing so well.

"He came here a while ago, but then left not so long ago" She answered me, with a smile.

"Okay, thanks Makino" I told the woman, before I turned around and left the bar.

I soon started going through the town again, looking for Luffy. I found him minutes later, sitting with his feet over the water of the harbour, in deep thought. I walked towards him.

"Luffy" I stated, which caused the younger boy to look at me for several seconds only to then return to stare at a random point on the sea.

I sat beside him, and looked too at the direction that he was looking at. I was about to ask him something, but it was him the one that spoke first in the end.

"Didi you see those two people in the bat?" he asked,

"What people?" I asked, not very sure what he was referring to.

"The ones that were... you know" He replied.

I thought for a moment about what he was referring to, when it suddenly hit me. "He means the ones that were kissing each other!" I thought. "I did see them" I then replied to my younger brother. "Why do you ask?" I then finished saying, wondering where he wanted to get to by saying all of this.

"Ace" Luffy then said, as he turned around and stared into my eyes, something that I soon returned. "Why do people do that?" he then asked. "Makino told me that it was called being a 'couple'. Why do people do that?" Luffy then finished asking, as he unconsciously got closer and closer to me in an inquisitive manner.

I blushed lightly at Luffy's proximity, not knowing what to say. I was surprised that Luffy was capable of thinking about these kind of things, since he was so childish after all. Why did he ask though? Did he like someone? Just as these thoughts passed though my head I felt a sudden and quick pang of jealousy that reminded me of my very own feelings. "People become 'couples' to be with the person they love" I soon answered.

Luffy then looked away, distanced himself from me and stared at the water below his feet. "So..." He started saying, as he went again into deep thought. I looked him curiously, and even got closer to him without knowing. "Could I then..." He started muttering, as I caught sight of a light blush on his cheeks.

I was about to ask him what he meant when he turned around to face me very quickly, somehow managed to push me against the floor so he was right above me and then stared right into my eyes, with that faint blush still on his cheeks. I felt heat rushing to my face as he did this and I stared into his eyes and my heart starting to beat fast.

"Ace?" he then asked, as he looked down at me.

"Y-yes?" I then asked him, nervously, wanting to know what the hell he wanted to ask.

"Could we then become a couple?" he then asked me, with an extremely light blush on his face that contrasted deeply with my now tomato coloured face.

"W-what the hell Luffy!" I shouted then, completely taken by surprise by the younger boy.

The other one just continued staring at me as if this was the most normal thing in the world. For god's sake, he wasn't even blushing now! "That time you said that it wasn't that bad" He easily replied to me, obviously referring to that time when I had found him crying because he had dreamt that I hated him, and when I had admitted to him that that kiss hadn't been that bad.

I looked at him, trying to say something but stuttering far too much for me to be understood. Luffy then seemed to grow tired of my stuttering and my attempts of trying to say whatever that I wanted to say, because he soon leaned down and kissed me in the lips with his eyes closed.

The kiss lasted a few seconds, and it was one as innocent as the one that he had stolen from me, but with more force and obvious interest and willingness. I had maintained my eyes wide open, not having expected this and trying to calm down my heart, which now was beating at a hundred miles per hour. Luffy then opened his eyes, and stared at my eyes, with a grin on his face and another light blush on his cheeks, that still wasn't comparable to my now even redder face.

"See?" He then asked, and it was then when I knew that he knew what I had felt then, surprisingly, considering it was Luffy. I remained silent for several seconds, thinking about anything that I could say then, but finding nothing, and instead staring at Luffy's eyes. "It wasn't that bad, and you know it Ace" he then said, with a wide and cheeky grin on his face.

"B-but" I stuttered then, not knowing how to reply to Luffy's surprising advances.

Luffy looked like he was about to say something else, but instead of doing this he laid down on the floor beside me, and snuggled against me a bit, with his eyes closed. It was then when I could feel his fast beating heart, and my stomach being invaded by a troop of butterflies. I remained in silence for a bit, staring into the night sky as i thought about what to do and say.

"Okay" I then said, several minutes after that had happened.

Luffy opened his eyes and looked at me with a curious face, asking me with his eyes to explain what I meant.

I sighed inwardly, annoyed. Did he really not understand? "I mean that I'm okay with us being a-a-" I started saying, but finding that I wasn't able to finish the phrase. I saw Luffy's grin return to his face as he understood what I was saying. I then closed my eyes as I decided to get my message across in another way. I leant towards Luffy's head and kissed him on the lips. This time it was longer, and I felt him respond to my kiss, but it was still an innocent one, and not like those that I had seen married people or couples give to each other, that sometimes were very long ones.

We broke apart seconds after, and I could then see Luffy smiling at me. I felt happy, and I had honestly liked the feeling that I had just gotten. We remained like this, staring at each other for several seconds in a comfortable silence, until Luffy decided to break it.

"You're blushing Ace" Luffy suddenly said, with a cheeky and teasing grin on his face.

"S-shut up!" I shouted back at him, not blushing more because that could be considered as something impossible to do at this point.

"You're blushing!" Luffy then repeated, as he jumped up and started running away.

"I told you to shut up!" I shouted at him, as I tried to catch the other boy

"You just wait until I catch you!" I shouted then at the boy as I ran behind him, with not so peaceful intentions.

This thread didn't seem to have much effect though, as Luffy started singing something that was like "Ace is blushing" over and over again through all of the streets of the village.

"Luffy!" I shouted, trying to stop him from singing that and to catch him, but with no results.


	4. Chapter 4

Here is chapter 4 after a veeeeeeery looooooooong wait! I hope you like it! I liked writing this, and like last chapter I started not knowing a single thing about what I wanted to write about, however I don't like this chapter that much. Expect another chapter more at some point in the future =D Well, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Ace's POV:

Time had passed, and the time for me to leave the island where we lived at had eventually come. It had felt bad to do it and leave Luffy alone at first, but I wanted desperately to start my own adventure, and Luffy had even nagged me on going on and doing what I had always dreamed on doing. That was how I left to start my own adventure. I knew that Luffy could take care of himself now since he was very strong, although it wasn't like I would ever admit that aloud.

Many things passed, and I somehow ended up being part of the legendary crew of Whitebeard. He was an incredible man, pops was fantastic and I really admired him a lot. Almost as soon as I had left the place where I had always lived with Luffy I had started missing him. At first it hadn't been too much, but soon the feeling had gotten larger and larger, reaching a point where it was almost unbearable. I couldn't wait to see him again, since it wouldn't take too long for him to be 17. He was only three years younger after all.

Soon the time when he had to start his own adventure had come. I had even been counting the days. Soon enough he had a bounty on his head, of 30 million berries nonetheless. It was a very good start. Soon quite a number of stories had started to be told about him. Getting that bounty in such a small amount of time for such a young person and for being such a rookie was bound to make people talk. They said that he was very strong and had some strange powers, some stories said that he was very cruel, and some others said that he wanted to kill this or this other famous pirate, to conquer the world... I got to laugh quite a lot when I heard people gossiping about "Straw Hat Luffy". It was amusing how many of these rumours contrasted deeply with the image of Luffy that was displayed in his "Wanted" poster. I really wanted to meet him now to hear about his adventures.

More time passed, and eventually I finally met him at Arabasta. I had expected this encounter, but it had still been a surprise for me to see him after three years at that town. He had grown up so much, and he had become so much stronger, as I had seen while we walked through the streets towards his ship, that he had _lost_. He had changed so much physically, but he still was the same Luffy that I had known for almost all my life, and this made me glad. He had been surprised at my eating a devil fruit, but he had been quite happy and interested to know about that. He had also said something about finally being able to understand the nick name that I had gotten, "Fire Fist Ace". I had to admit that the way in which he punched enemies was impressive now that he managed to do it successfully, while we had been growing up seeing him punch himself or god knows how many other things had been a bit pathetic, just to say the least.

I decided to spend some time with him and his crew, since I had to search for a man that was said to have seen Blackbeard and that was in Arabasta. This served as the perfect excuse to spend some time with Luffy, who I hadn't seen in such a long time.

Several days had passed, and we were now at the desert that was Arabasta. It was fun to be with them and to get to know how Luffy's crew was like. Right now it was night time, and we were sitting down around the fire at the improvised camp where we slept at. We had been talking for some time, and laughing quite a lot too, but the laugher and talking had gradually died down and had ended up in an uncomfortable and oppressive silence. We had already spent some minutes in the complete silence doing nothing, and it was then when a bored Luffy suggested something.

"This is boring!" He started saying with one of his typical whines "Let's do something!" He then added.

We then all started to think about what we could possibly do to entertain ourselves for some more time. It was Chopper, the little reindeer, the one that added something.

"yes! Let's play a game!" He said with an excited tone of voice.

We remained silent once more. I would suggest something to do, but I couldn't think of anything that was worth proposing. Time passed with us in silence as we thought of possible things to do, and Usopp was the first one to suggest something to do.

"I know!" He suddenly shouted. "I heard of this game once that would be fun to play!" He shouted, quite excited.

"Oh! What is it? What is it?" Luffy immediately asked with a very excited tone of voice.

"It is called truth or dare" Usopp said with that excited tone of voice.

As soon as he said the name of the game I saw Luffy's shocked face as he surely remembered the many times that he had played it with me and Sabo or only both of us. I was sure that it brought him quite a lot of memories, and the same thing happened to me. I was sure that I had the same surprised expression on my face. I heard Luffy gulp quite loudly the water that he was drinking at the moment.

"Eh, Luffy?" Usopp said, wondering if what he had said was a good idea. I chuckled as I saw Luffy obviously remember all of those moments that we had had when we had played this game.

"It's a great idea, let's play that game!" He then said as he recomposed himself with a very excited and cheerful tone of voice. Of course he was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"But what are the rules of the game?" I heard name ask. I was surprised, I thought that this game was quite popular.

Usopp then started explaining the rules, and in several minutes we had all sat in a circle, had decided the turns and were ready to start. Luffy, Usopp and Chopper seemed quite eager to play, but the others didn't seem too convinced. I sighed inwardly as I remembered just how much of a devil Luffy could be when playing this game. He had made me and Sabo have some embarrassing and even dramatising moments when playing this game. I, being the guest, had been chosen to start the game. I looked around me, thinking who I could ask truth or dare to. I ended up deciding that Usopp was probably the best choice since he had proposed to play the game.

"So Usopp. Truth or dare?" I asked him.

The raven haired man looked at me. "Dare" He said.

"Okay, So Usopp, you have to..." I started saying.

Minutes passed, and soon the game started progressing and getting more and more fun, and also more and more embarrassing. I still hadn't asked Luffy anything, since I didn't want to ask him anything, he had too much of a good time when playing this game. He had been dared by almost every member of the crew several times already, and the same was applied to me. Luffy hadn't dared me either, probably because of the same reasons as I had. Soon Luffy was dared to do something; I wasn't listening too closely at the time, by Zoro that he didn't seem to like too much. He even protested for a bit, but he soon started with the dare.

More time passed, and I swear to god that I was never going to be treated in a too friendly way by either Zoro or Sanji after some dares that I had made them do. I looked at one of them and received a glare in return. Yes, never. We had all had to do some embarrassing things, but...

"So Luffy, truth or dare?" I heard Zoro ask then, still visibly annoyed by what I had just made him do and what Luffy had clearly supported earlier by laughing aloud. He seemed like he wanted some sort of revenge...

"Dare" was Luffy's immediate reply with a very confident tone of voice.

Zoro grinned then evilly. "Oh, great" He said, with a very dark tone of voice. Wow, he really wanted revenge. I wondered what he would make Lu do now. "Luffy, I dare you to kiss Ace" He then said, still with that dark tone of voice.

"What?" I immediately shouted at him, surprised by what he had told my younger adoptive brother to do.

"Oh, you heard me Ace. It is not like you haven't dared me to do the same thing" He said.

I wanted to reply something, but I was unable to think of something. Yes, I had made Zoro do the same thing so... My eyes then fell on Luffy, who seemed to be thinking something. I was willing to bet anything that he was thinking about that dare that Sabo had made him do all of that time ago. Sanji looked sickened who knows why, Usopp was shaking his head but obviously on the verge of laughing, Chopper was staring in turns at me and Luffy and Vivi and Nami were looking at both of us with creepy interested faces. What where they thinking?

Suddenly Luffy moved. "Okay" He said with a calm voice, which was something that disconcerted Zoro,w ho had probably wanted to get some sort of bad reaction from Luffy or from me.

Luffy then turned towards me and in less than a second he was hugging me by the neck and kissing me, like we had done so many times. I returned the kiss for a bit, not missing Nami's creepy face. I swear there were stars in her eyes.

Luffy soon broke out kiss, and he then turned around at Zoro. "So, Zoro. Truth or dare?" He asked him with a grin on his face that didn't promise anything good.

"Dare" The green haired swordsman said.

Luffy's grin got wider, if possible. "Okay, do again what Ace told you last to do" He said to him.

"What?" Zoro shouted, not believing his luck and clearly not wanting to do what I had last told him to do again.

"Oh, but you have to do it. We are playing truth or dare after all" Luffy said, laughing at the end of the phrase.

Zoro turned around to do his dare with a grumpy and scary face. Oh, this would be an interesting game. I touched my lips as I remembered the kiss that we had just shared. It had felt so good, just like all of those other times.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

In my persecution of Blackbeard I had ended up finding pops and Marco again my some chance. I had of course stopped for a while on their ship, since it was always nice to be with my nakama. I was currently sitting on the deck just relaxing and thinking about what I should do now.

"Hey Ace, isn't this your little brother?" I heard the familiar blonde haired man ask me.

I turned around and looked at the blonde man, and then at what he had in between his hands. It was the wanted poster of Luffy.

"Yes" I replied as I looked at the poster. The photograph was still the same, but his bounty had changed. It had changed from his first one of 30 million to the impressive amount of 100 million. I looked at it, surprised and feeling proud of him. He really was something.

"He is very strong, or so they say" Marcos started saying. I just nodded, confirming what he was saying. "So we could, you know... make him join the crew so we could do this and that... you know the kind of things..." Marco started saying with a very suggestive tone of voice.

A blush crept to my face. "Marco! Don't you _dare_" I shouted.

"What is that, Ace?" He then said with a teasing tone of voice as he started running away from me before I could get too close to him. "Do you have an problem with me trying that?" he then said.

"Marco!" I shouted again as I chased him, wanting him to shut up and to stop saying that.


	5. Chapter 5

Here is chapter five! I hope that you all like it! (I personally don't like this one that much). At first I had another idea for this chapter, but after failing two times to write it well I decided to go along with this one instead. I have another idea for next chapter too, and it will be up soon! Anyways, thank you all for all the favs, alerts and reviews! You guys are the best!

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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In my seemingly eternal (or just very long) persecution of Blackbeard I had ended up at a strange island to rest for a bit before I continued sailing. I had immediately directed myself to the only village at the island or more specifically to the local (and only) bar that there was. Once I had arrived there I had immediately ordered some food and I started stuffing my face in the way in which I always did.

There was an aura of absolute peace at the village and at the bar. The kids were playing outside with each other, and their laughs filled the peaceful and quite empty bar in which I currently was at. Their laughter made me remember events that had passed long ago and that filled me with joy every time that those memories invaded my mind once again, most of all involving Luffy and Sabo. I guess that several hours had passed already since I had arrived at the bar, and I could only guess this since it was nearly night time and I had arrived here when it was approximately midday. I looked at the waiter and ordered more food. I didn't really care what it was as long as it was food, since I was so hungry. The man looked at me with a surprised face and then went to the kitchen to tell the cook to cook more food. It was then when a father and his daughter, who seemed to be nearly in her early teens, entered the bar.

"Shall I serve you what you always order, Jack?" The waiter immediately said.

"Yes please!" The man then said with a happy tone of voice as he went towards a table and sat there with his daughter.

Both of them soon started chatting animatedly as they ate the food that the waiter soon served them. They seemed to be so close to each other; it was almost endearing to see them like that. Remained like this, eating without saying anything while the other two people at the bar just chatted to each other. I wasn't paying too much attention to their conversation, but I was taken by surprise when I heard the young girl ask an all too familiar question to her father.

"Dad, how are babies made?" She asked him with the almost most innocent tone of voice that I had heard.

I suddenly started thinking about the question that the girl had just asked, remembering the same question that the person that I had grown up with had asked me several years ago, before we had become a "couple" like he said years after that... kiss... and that had been so hard for me to answer back then.

-.-.-.-.-Flashback-.-.-.-.-

It was a hot summer day, and I was surprisingly resting beneath a tree after eating lunch, not wanting to go out into the exhausting summer heat. Luffy was out doing who knows what at the moment. I was amazed by how energy the now nine year old had all day during what seemed to be all day no matter what happened to him. His ability to get into immense trouble didn't seem to stop at anytime, and I was worried that something might have happened to him (not like I would ever admit this aloud though). I was thinking of getting up and checking how he was at the moment, but this was not necessary though since Luffy suddenly appeared where I was with a goofy grin on his face. He had the expression that he always had when he was about to ask something to someone.

He sat down beside me, at the shade of the large tree. "Ace, I wanted to ask you something..." He muttered as he looked at me with a now dead serious tone of voice.

I looked at him with surprise. What would he possible want to ask me? "What is it Lu?" I immediately said with curiosity in my voice.

Luffy looked away for a moment and then looked at me straight into my eyes. "How are babies made?" He suddenly asked me.

I stared him at first with surprise. This surprise soon turned into shock and then into a deep shyness about the whole topic and embarrassment. "W-why do you ask?" I asked him, not being able to stop myself from stuttering or from blushing lightly.

Luffy continued with that completely non-embarrassed and still curious tone of voice that he had. Did he really not know? "I heard a woman say to a man at the Grey terminal that she was going to have _his_ baby,s o I wondered how babies were made and I decided to come and ask you" He said with a completely pure and innocent tone of voice.

I grit my teeth, why had he decided to ask _me_ from all people? Why couldn't he have asked Makino, she was better suited for these explanations than I was. "It isn't important" I immediately told Luffy, trying to get rid from the task of explaining to the younger boy where babies came from.

Luffy suddenly got closer to me and grabbed me from the arms. "But I want to know Ace!" he said with a whiny tone of voice and with his 'puppy eyes'. This caused me blush very deeply and to feel my heart beating faster and faster. Ever since _that_ had happened when Luffy was seven and I was ten things had never been the same.

"Okay, I will tell you how babies are made" I said with a defeated tone of voice. I couldn't explain how I couldn't refuse to do anything that Luffy asked when he had that puppy-like look on his face. I was completely unable to explain why this happened over and over again.

Luffy immediately let go of my arms and sat right in front of me as I sat with my legs crossed. He continued staring right into my eyes with an amount of curiosity that I didn't think that was possible.

"You see, when two people love each other..." I started saying, stopping at the end to think what I was going to say.

"Love?" Luffy said with an amused and innocent tone of voice.

"Yes, love" I said with an unsure tone of voice. "Well, when two people love each other they do something called s-sex" I said with an increasingly nervous tone of voice and as I blushed deeper and deeper, not liking this situation.

"What is sex?" Luffy then asked with the same curious and innocent tone of voice.

"It is... It is done by... it is when..." I starts saying, stopping every single time that I was going to start explaining to him how babies were made, completely unable to go on. He was so innocent! How could I do this to him! I had to preserve his innocence, I couldn't tell him this! I continuously thought as I tried to start answering his question.

"What?" Luffy asked as soon as I started stopping my sentences, not understanding why I was doing this in the middle of my answer.

I shook my head, deciding that I would preserve Luffy's innocence a while longer. "When two people love each other they are rewarded by the stork with a baby" I suddenly blurted out. "That is where babies come from" I then added, trying to sound as honeset as possible.

Luffy remained still, thinking and not saying anything at all as he processed the information or thought about who knows what else. "Then could we have a baby?" He then asked with that innocent voice again.

My face became deep crimson, and I was unable to say anything to this. What was he thinking? No, what was he _suggesting_? I turned around and ran away, not wanting to confront Luffy on this and being completely unable to. I felt my heart beating quickly again, and I was unable to stop this strange reaction in me from happening.

Luffy just stood there, calling my name and asking me quite loudly what had happened. He didn't get the truth that time, but some days later he asked the same question to Makino and he finally got his answer. We didn't talk about the whole event for quite a number of days.


	6. Chapter 6

Here is chapter six! I have absolutely no clue about how I got the idea of this chapter. I haven't got a single clue. Anyways, I hope that you enjoy this chapter! (I certainly did enjoy writing it, even though it was a bit difficult to do so at times =3 ). Thank you all for your reviews, favs and alerts! I'm glad that you liked this fanfic and last chapter ^_^

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does. I do however own the plot of this story.

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Luffy's POV:

We were all currently sitting on the Sunny Go's deck talking and sitting in one huge circle. It was night time already, and there wasn't a single cloud at the sky. We were all just having a good time, like we always did. We had been all day travelling towards the next island and the next adventure that was still slightly far away according to Nami. We had already spent hours like this, and maybe even more time had passed since we had had dinner. Hmm, I was starting to feel hungry now that I thought about it... More minutes passed with us talking and Zoro and Sanji mock fighting with each other due to who knows what, I wasn't really that interested. My attention was suddenly grabbed by Nami as she answered one of Sanji's questions.

"Well, I have gone out with some guys before..." She said as she looked at the wooden floor, deep in thought and with all of our eyes on her. What had Sanji asked her exactly? "What about you Sanji?" She then said with a happy tone of voice.

"I have gone out with lots of girls, but none as beautiful as Nami-swan and Robin-chwan!" Sanji suddenly said with a loud love-sick voice as he suddenly stood up on his feet.

"Sure you have Ero-cook" Zoro said with a mocking tone of voice.

"What about you then marimo? I bet you haven't gone out with anyone!" Sanji said to Zoro with that tone of voice that he used in the fights between him and the swordsman.

"I haven't, but at least I don't lie about it" Zoro easily replied with another mocking tone of voice.

"I see..." Usopp said as he looked at Sanji with a funny expression. I couldn't help but to laugh at this, and Chopper did too. "Sanji was really unpopular" Usopp then finished saying.

"I was not!" Sanji shouted at Usopp in a desperate tone of voice.

This continued for some time, until Nami asked another question.

"Have you guys gone out with anyone?" She asked with a curious voice.

They all then proceeded to answer out of free will or as their names were said. It turned out that more or less half of us had gone out with someone, while the other half hadn't. Usopp ended up with quite a depressed face, but that was nothing compared to Sanji's face at the moment. As Brook, the last one to be asked answered they all turned around to look at me.

"What about you Luffy?" Nami asked with a sincere and still curious tone of voice. I could see Usopp chuckling lightly, what was he thinking?

"Well, I..." I started saying, as I remembered the times before I had set sail.

-.-.-..-.-.-.-

I was almost fourteen and Ace had just turned seventeen. Ace would set sail tomorrow to start his waited for adventure, the same one that I would start too when I was seventeen as well. I had mixed feelings about this though, since I knew that I would miss Ace so much. I knew though that I would see Ace again, and that made me be happy again, because I knew that Ace would never die, he had promised after all, and Ace never broke his promises. Several years had passed since I had kissed him for the first time and since I had discovered my feelings for him, and it had been less time since we became a "couple". Truly, not much had changed since we became a couple. Ace was still quite 'shy', as Sabo would say it, and we still behaved in the same way that we did before we became a couple. Of course, we kissed more often, but there hadn't been that much of a difference.

Where were we right now? We were making our way towards Goa Kingdom since tonight there was a big ball organised there, and because of some strange reason we had decided to go there to see how it would be. We were both dressed up quite nicely in traditional and elegant black suits that Makino had helped us get. It felt so strange to wear something like this, I was still wearing my treasured straw hat though, and this comforted me quite a lot.

"There is the entrance" I heard Ace say, probably out of custom. We had gone into the town so many times after all.

I nodded and we continued running towards the door. The guards that were guarding the entrance looked at us and let us pass without trying to stop us even though we weren't nobles. I could see their nervous and scared faces as they saw us, we had caused them so many problems after all over the years, and no one could really blame them for letting us enter the town like that. How many times had we broken their boned or done nearly irreparable damage? Soon we were running through the streets of the town that we were so used to and that were currently deserted. Everyone was bound to be at that ball. Why were they so interested in always being at social events anyways? We both stopped running when we reached the gigantic building where the ball was being held.

"We arrived" Ace stated emotionlessly.

I grinned and I stood up, not being able wait to have fun here with Ace. "It's going to be fun, ne Ace?" I said.

Ace grinned and nodded. I couldn't help but wonder why exactly we had ended up deciding to come here. It had been Ace the one who had suggested it too, I simply couldn't still understand why.

We straightened up our suits, which were still clean due to some strange miracle. Seconds later we went towards the entrance of the building, opened the door and entered the room. We soon found ourselves at some kind of room dedicated to receiving visits or something like that. The whole floor of the room was made of pure white marble, and the walls were white and heavily decorated with huge beautiful mirrors, golden decorations on the walls, paintings, tapestries and many more things. The room itself was full of expensive objects, some that I haven't even seen in my life. We both walked across the room towards the heavily decorated door that was right in front of us as we looked all around us. There were two guards standing right in front of the door. They probably have been sent there to watch who entered the room and make sure that no one too suspicious or someone that was not a noble entered the room. They had ended up falling asleep though. They must have been so boring. We soon were right in front of the door, opened the door and entered the room.

The room was full of people that were continuously dancing. There were people of all ages dancing inside the room. There were a group of musicians playing constantly too. On the sides of the room there were several people standing there, talking or just looking at the people that were dancing with an extremely bored face. We went down the stairs that led to the main part of the room, passing completely unnoticed, and we both soon were standing at the side of the room, wondering what to do.

I turned around and was about to say something to Ace when I saw that a strange girl was talking to him. I felt a pang of jealously and I was about to say something when I heard a female voice behind me.

"Would you please dance with me?" a girl of about my age asked me.

I turned around again and looked at Ace, who was being led towards the centre of the room by an attractive girl of about his age. I turned around again to look again at the girl.

"Sure" I said.

The girl did a strange squeal and muttered something that I couldn't understand too well before she grabbed me by my arm and almost literally dragged me towards the centre of the room, where everyone was dancing. I turned around again and looked at the place where Ace had been, and I soon saw him dancing with the girl that had talked to him before. I shook my head as I got the jealous feeling again and quickly told myself that it was nothing. I then focused again on the girl that I was about to dance with, who was still giggling quite nervously and was looking at me in a strange way. Were those hearts coming out of her eyes? What could that possibly mean?

A song then started playing, and I started dancing with the girl that had almost dragged me here. She immediately grabbed me in the way that the girl always did to the boy when they were dancing a waltz and I did the same thing, soon starting to dance together at the rhythm of the happy and animated waltz music that was being played. I had been taught how to dance to this kind of music by Makino some time ago, and I wasn't that bad. I still didn't see how this would be useful though.

Many minutes passed, and I didn't notice the person that was looking at me with interest and jealousy as I danced with the girl. I wasn't really paying attention to the girl either, I was just thinking about where Ace could possibly be right now and what he could be doing. We had come here to have a good time right? I had to be with him for that!

More time passed, and I continued dancing with the girl until a song that required changing dancing partners started to be played, and I soon found myself dancing with many different people in a small amount of time. While I did this I looked around, trying to find Ace but not managing to see him. Where could he possibly be? I continued changing of dancing partner as the song continued playing, not really paying any attention to what was going on. Not hearing the sound of footsteps that got closer and closer to me elegantly as I continued moving around the room, and I only realised that someone was behind me when I suddenly felt a hand creeping up to my face and suddenly covering my eyes.

"W-what? Who are you?" I said as I tried to get the hand that had suddenly covered my eyes.

There was no response from the mystery person, and I suddenly felt the person grabbing me by the waist and starting to drag me out of the centre of the room and probably to one of the sides. I wrestled for a bit, trying to get away from the mystery person's strange hug, if it even could be considered that. I didn't manage to do much though, since the person was quite strong and managed to maintain me between his strong arms and move me. Barely half a minute had passed when I felt the cold air of the night on my face. By now I wasn't opposing the man and I was letting him take me to wherever he wanted to take me. I would make sure to fight him once I could see where I was. I suddenly felt me being pushed against a wall, and by now I knew that I was probably at the gardens of the rich house where the ball had been held, whose access was right in front of the door that led to the room where I had been for who knows how much time.

"Who are you?" I asked quite calmly, as I felt the arm that was wrapped around my waist let me go free. However the hand that was covering my eyes remained in its place.

I again received no response, and I was about to say something else when I felt the person kissing the nape of my neck quite passionately. I wrestled a bit more, but I still didn't manage to break free. The person continued kissing me on the neck in the exact same way. The only sound that could be heard was the faint one of the musical instruments back in the room that I had been forced to leave.

I was unable to say anything for some time as the person kissed me on the neck, slowly going up and getting closer and closer to my face. I was in shock. Where could Ace be? Suddenly his lips were on mine, and it was in that very moment that I decided that I was tired of being in this situation and when I kicked with my knee the person's stomach.

A grunt was heard, and I felt the person flinch, breaking the kiss suddenly and in obvious pain. I used this moment to look at the person that had dragged me out of the room and kissed me in that way and that now was in obvious pain by the sound of it.

"Don't ever kiss me without-" I started saying as I ripped his hand off my face, not being able to continue my phrase when I finally found out who the person's identity was.

"Why did you do that, it wasn't necessary" I said with a sad tone of voice, as the person in front of me regained his posture and rested his hand on the wall, creating an aura of dominance around him.

"You were dancing with that girl, and you know that you love _me_, not _her_" He, the person, said with a deep and calm tone of voice. You could hear a very clear undertone of jealousy.

"But-!" I said with a louder tone of voice.

"Be quiet!" He immediately replied as he placed his hand over my lips, "Or else they will find us" He then finished saying.

"Ace, I-" I then started saying as soon as he moved his hand, allowing me to speak again.

He just looked at me from that dominant position with curious predator eyes. He didn't allow me to speak for long though, as he soon interrupted me again.

"You are mine, don't forget that" he said as he continued to look at me. "You are mine, and you'll always be even though I'll set sail tomorrow" He then added as his face started coming closer to mine, centimetre by centimetre.

"Ace..." I said then, not really managing to find the words that I wanted to say.

"Luffy, I love you" He suddenly said with a desperate tone of voice, as he finally bent down and kissed my lips with passion and force. He broke contact quite a number of seconds later, with a string of saliva still connecting us. "Don't leave me, promise to never forget me or leave me behind" He then said with a voice full of necessity... and contained feelings.

I grinned. "Ace, how can you be so stupid?" I said with a funny and yet dead serious tone of voice. "How could I forget you?" I then asked aloud. I looked up at Ace, who still maintained the dominant position. "Ace, I love you. Never forget that" I then said with my classical grin on my face.

The rest came immediately, I wrapped my arms around Ace's neck and I brought him down to my level, immediately kissing him with full force on his lips.

-.-.-.-End of flashback.-.-.-.-

"So, Luffy? Have you ever gone out with anyone?" I suddenly heard Nami asking again with curiosity.

I shook my head, realised that I had zoned out for probably quite an amount of time. "Well, I..." I started saying again, while I heard Usopp laughing an a low voice.

"I bet that he hasn't" I heard him say then with that tone of voice that he always used when telling jokes.

A cheeky grin appeared on my face. "Yes I do" I then answered as calmly as I could, as I heard and saw the face's and sounds of surprise of my nakama as I answered.

"What do you mean that he has?" I heard Sanji said with a particularly loud tone of voice.


	7. Chapter 7

Here is chapter eight! I really wanted this to be up sooner, but I was unable to. Sorry ._." Well, I have no idea how this ended up being so much longer than last chapter. I really expected it to be shorter xD Well, I hope that you enjoy it! ^_^ By the way, this is Ace's POV of last chapter, just so you know. Thank you all for all of those favs, alerts and reviews! I'm glad that you've liked this story so far! =D *hugs and gives cookies*

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Ace's POV:

I was, because of some strange reason that I still couldn't completely understand, sitting on the main deck of the Moby Dick with some of the other commanders and nakama from the crew. We had been passing a good time there, like always, until because of some strange reason a question that made me feel quite uncomfortable started circling around.

"So Ace, answer" I heard Marco say, bringing me back to reality. "Answer the questions like some of us have already done. It's your duty" He said with that calm tone of voice that he always used. I was sure that he was laughing inside though.

"I already told you that I don't want to say if I've ever gone out with anyone or if I still love that person or not, nor is it important" I quickly said, hoping that this was enough to calm them down.

"Why are you so protective?" I heard Jozu comment.

"Yeah, why are you so protective Ace?" Marco immediately asked too with a teasing voice. "Have you done something that you are so embarrassed about that you don't want to tell us?" He then asked again.

I heard some of the female members of the crew around us giggling, obviously interested in what my answer was going to be. I couldn't help but shudder. What had I done to deserve this?

I couldn't help but blush at this. "No! And if I have it is none of your bloody business!" I shouted at him, quite annoyed. I wasn't embarrassed about anything that I had ever done, but i simply didn't want to tell.

"Maybe you've done these things with one of the people that were in your old crew..." Marco guessed.

"No Marco, I told you that I won't answer" I replied.

"... Someone here..." he then added.

I just growled at this and tried to ignore Marco and the giggles that could be heard. I wouldn't answer or say a single thing about it. Yes, I definitely wouldn't.

"...Someone that you knew from before becoming a pirate..." He then added with a dead serious tone of voice, causing more fits of giggles to break out as he stared at me, inspecting closely my reactions.

I tried to maintain my composure and my facial expression right as it had been before, but I knew that I had given a hint out when he had said that last thing. I could already see a ghost smirk on Marco's face.

"I told you that I won't tell!" I quickly added in the most serious tone of voice that I could manage to do. It would have been perfect if I hadn't reacted so much or if I was blushing deeper now. I growled again and mentally hit myself for making it obvious that Marco was correct this time.

"So I _am_ right about" Marco said with a cheeky grin on his face. "Tell us, Ace, there's no need to feel shy about it. We're all grownups here after all" He then added.

I gritted my teeth, realising that there was no way out now, and started answering the question that I had been asked, remembering all of the time that I had spent with Luffy and what we had done during the time that we had known each other, ending up remembering the last day that we had spent together.

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I would be seventeen tomorrow, and with that date came the start of my awaited adventure, the start of the time when I would be able to make my dream come true. I had been increasingly nervous as this day came closer and closer, but it was finally here, and I was incredibly excited to set sail tomorrow. I couldn't wait to start it all. However as the day had come closer and closer I could recognise a feeling of regret growing inside me. One of sadness, created without a doubt because of having to leave Luffy behind since he was fourteen after all. At first I had tried to ignore the existence of this feeling, but this had been useless, as there was no doubt that this feeling was there and existed. I was sad that I would have to part Luffy. I truly wanted to stay here with him, to make sure that he wasn't hurt at all, but I knew that this was impossible. I had to set sail, just like he would do when he was seventeen.

I didn't want anything bad to happen to him. I wanted to stay by his side and watch him grow and become stronger, to pass every day with him. He was my younger brother after all and I couldn't deny my feelings for him, the way my heart raced whenever he touched me or kissed me. I knew that I would miss him during the time where he was here and I was in my own adventure, but there was no other way. I knew that he would go onto his own adventure when he was seventeen, and I knew that we would see each other then, at sea. I had promised him not to die after all, and I didn't plan to. What would my little brother do without me? It was this thought that made this feeling of sadness be smaller and smaller. Luffy would be all right, he was quite strong after al (although it wasn't like I would ever admit that).

I could still remember the time when he had kissed me due to be playing that strange game with Sabo and what it had ended up causing. I could still remember all of the moments that I had passed with Luffy, including the time when we had become a 'couple'. Not much had changed since before that moment, but I knew that what we felt wouldn't change either. This had been our last day together, and our last night together as well, and I wanted to make it special. I wanted to make it a night to be remembered.

What had I decided to do this night then? There was a ball being celebrated at Goa kingdom, an important one. That was why I had decided to go with Luffy. I hadn't really explained my true reasons to him, but I really wanted to have a good time there with him. I wanted to be with him the whole time, to dance with him and to kiss him until he was unable to forget how it felt like when we were together. I wanted to do so many things with him, and I knew that deep inside he felt the same way. We were both wearing two traditional elegant black suits that Makino had helped us get. It felt strange to wear something like this though.

"There is the entrance" I said as I spotted the entrance to the town that we had gone into so many times, purely out of custom.

Luffy nodded, and we crossed the entrance quite easily, none of the guards trying to stop us from entering. I couldn't really blame them, since they had ended up being hurt so many times because of us that it was almost understandable. I bet that they passed a really bad time whenever they saw us near them. We started running through all of the streets that were currently deserted. I was still impressed just by how seriously people here took the social status. It was just like Sabo had described it, in a way. It was ridiculous. We only stopped running when we reached the enormous building where the ball was held at.

"We arrived" I said emotionlessly as I looked at the building, It was so beautiful. It had huge windows all around its walls, and you could easily see just how heavily decorated it was on the inside.

"It's going to be fun, ne Ace?" I heard Luffy ask with a grin on his face.

I just grinned and nodded, not really being able to say something else. Yes, it was going to be fun. I didn't want to forget this night, as strange as it could sound. We both immediately started to straighten up our suits then to be presentable, that somehow were still clean. Moments later we were opening the slightly big door that led to the entrance of the building and entering this room.

The room that we entered was huge and heavily decorated with many decorations and objects, some of them that I hadn't seen in my entire life. The floor was made out of pure white marble, the whitest one that I had ever seen, and I managed to see the colour of the walls after some time of looking at them, which was quite difficult due to all of the decorations. I swear that some of them were even made out of gold.

Right in front of the door that we had entered through was a heavily decorated door that was even painted in gold and silver tones. In front of it, slightly to a side, where two guards that had been surely placed there to ensure that anyone that wasn't a noble didn't enter the ball that was taking place inside the other room. They were both asleep, surely out of the boredom of being here. I chuckled when I saw them asleep and just walked towards the door. I really had expected this part to be more difficult, but it seemed that fortune was on our side. We opened the door and entered the room where the ball was being held at.

The room was full of people of all ages from the town dancing together at the centre of it. On the sides of the room, near the stairs that we would have to descend to get to the main part of the room there was a group of people that were standing with an extremely bored face either looking at the great majority of people that were dancing or just talking to each other. We started descending the stairs that led to the main room then, completely unnoticed. We then mixed ourselves with the crowd that was just standing there. This room was also richly decorated again, and to one side there was some kind small orchestra that was playing the music. It was another beautiful room, and people seemed to just be paying attention to those that they cared about.

We stood there for little less than a minute, time during which I wondered what I could exactly say to Luffy. I didn't know what to do, and I just stood there, thinking, wondering what I should do and gathering the courage to ask him to dance with me. I was about to ask him to dance with me when I heard a female voice to my side. I turned around and saw a beautiful girl of my age that was wearing what seemed to be a very expensive dress.

"Will you dance with me?" She asked with what seemed to be a... lovesick... tone of voice. She looked as if she was going to start giggling or squealing any moment now. How creepy.

"Well, you see I already-" I started saying, trying to politely tell her that I already had someone to dance with.

"Will you dance with me?" She then asked again, but in a meaner tone of voice.

I opened my mouth to say something, and I turned around to look at Luffy and see if he could help me with this, just to see that he was talking to a girl that seemed to be of about his age, maybe a bit less. Suddenly I found myself being dragged to the centre of the room by the girl that had asked me, no, demanded me to dance with her. I looked at Luffy then, just to see that he was being led by that strange girl to dance near the centre of the room.

"Hey, at least look at me" I heard my own dancing pair say with quite a whiny tone of voice.

I sighed. I hadn't chosen this, but Luffy was with another person. I felt a wave of jealousy flood me as I saw him start to dance with that girl. He should be dancing with _me_, not with _her_! "Of course" I just said to the girl that had dragged me here. A waltz was playing, and I soon started dancing with her in the way that I should dance a waltz, as the male part. Of course I knew how to dance to this music, courtesy of Makino's training. It was true that it could prove useful one day.

We started going all around the room, dancing with each other. During all of this time I managed to maintain my eyes on Luffy as he danced with that girl, still feeling a deep and deadly jealousy. How had she dared? Wasn't it obvious that he was with _me_? This led me to the question of why the girl that I was dancing with had just pulled me to the dancing part of the room, _demanding_ that I danced with her. Wasn't it obvious that I was with Luffy and not looking for a girl to dance with? I wanted to spend time with _him_, not with a girl that I didn't know.

I looked around the room, stopping at times to just look at the girl that I was dancing with so that she didn't complain. I really had no interest in her. I just wanted to dance with Luffy. I was about to just leave the girl and go towards Luffy when I realised that there were several guards patrolling around the room in a discreet way. No noble would ever dream of behaving in a way that was not accepted socially here, and leaving a girl alone while dancing was surely considered against the social norm, especially one that was surely from a very high class. I would have to just wait.

Just then the song changed to one that required partners to be changed constantly. It was a quicker and quite happier song than the ones that had been playing before. I then started changing of partners in an elegant and precise way, slowly making my way towards Luffy, who was doing the same and seemed to be searching for someone. Was it me or was it that strange girl?

I went towards him in the way that the dance required, but once I was right behind him I placed my hand over his eyes, stopping him from seeing who I was. I suddenly decided that I would show him just how I felt, how much I needed for him to be with me and not with other people.

"W-what? Who are you?" He said, stuttering, as he tried to get my hand to move off his face so that he could see who I was. No, I wouldn't allow that.

I didn't reply, and instead I just grabbed him by his waist, immediately feeling heat rise to my face and my heart starting to beat faster, and started leading him out of the dancing room. I could feel him wrestling against my strange hug, trying to break free most probably so that he could see who I was. He did that for quite some time, as I first lead him to one of the sides and then to the crystal door at one side of the room that led to the garden of this enormous building. I didn't let him escape though and maintained him between the gentle but strong 'hug', if it could even be called that. He realised after some moments that he wouldn't manage to break free, and immediately stopped wrestling, probably to reserve his energy and fight me once he knew who I was and he was free to move. This almost made me chuckle. Almost.

I easily led him to the gardens of the house, and walked for a bit, feeling the cold air of the night brush against my skin. When I had found a nice and quite hidden spot that I liked and that I was sure that the guards that were patrolling the gardens didn't find us I pushed Luffy against a wall and slowly unwrapped the arm that had been around his waist.

"Who are you?" He asked with a calm voice, not really trying to get me to move the hand that was still covering his eyes.

I again didn't answer, and instead I started to kiss the nape of his neck in quite a passionate way. I closed my eyes, and I felt him start to wrestle again, trying again to get rid of me but again not managing. I continued doing this for some time, paying no attention to the now slightly distant sound of the music of the room. I slowly started going up his neck, ending by kissing him on his lips in a passionate way. My eyes were closed and I was quite relaxed, but suddenly I was kicked quite hard on my stomach, courtesy of Luffy's knee. I flinched and grunted in pain, breaking the kiss.

"Don't ever kiss me without-" I heard Luffy start saying as he tore my hand off his face so that he could see who I was, which he still didn't know. He stopped his sentence as soon as he saw who I was though. "Why did you do that? it wasn't necessary" Luffy then said with quite a sad tone of voice as I regained my posture and rested my hand on the wall, creating an aura of dominance around me.

"You were dancing with that girl, and you know that you love _me_, not _her_" I said with a deep and calm voice, still feeling that intense jealousy.

"But-!" He said with a loud tone of voice.

"Be quiet!" He I immediately said as I placed my hand over his lips, interrupting him "Or else they will find us" I then finished saying, with a low tone of voice.

"Ace, I-" he started to say as I looked at him with curious depredator eyes, just ot be interrupted by me again.

"You are mine, don't forget that" I said as I continued looking at him "You are mine, and you'll always be even though I'll set sail tomorrow" I then finished saying as I brought my face closer and closer to his.

"Ace..." He said, not knowing what to continue saying after that.

"Luffy, I love you" He suddenly I said with quite a desperate tone of voice as I finally bent down and kissed his lips with passion and force. I broke contact quite a number of seconds later, a string of saliva still connecting us. "Don't leave me, promise to never forget me or leave me behind" I then said with a desperate and needy tone of voice and a lot of contained feelings.

He suddenly grinned, confusing me. "Ace, how can you be so stupid?" He said with a slightly comic tone of voice and yet dead serious at the same time. "How could I forget you?" He then said out aloud. He looked up at me as I still maintained the dominant position. "Ace, I love you. Never forget that" He then said with his classical grin on his face.

I didn't react immediately, and instead I felt Luffy wrapping his arms around my neck and bringing me down to his level, kissing me with full force on my lips. A kiss that I immediately started responding to.


	8. Chapter 8

Okay, first things first. There are spoilers here reaching chapter 574 and it's anime equivalent (the end of the Marineford arc). You have been warned.

Thank you all for all of the alerts, favs and reviews! I'm glad that you've all liked this story so much =D

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece, Oda does.

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Luffy's POV:

I opened my eyes, realising that I was surrounded by darkness. Where was I? Was I… dead? No, that was not it. Is this real though? I couldn't know. I didn't know how to recognise _where_ I was exactly, but I didn't really care right now.

I closed my eyes, letting the sweet darkness surround me again. I could faintly hear my own heavy breathing, but I couldn't detect or feel anything else, just this darkness. I didn't move a muscle and I just laid there, with no thoughts in my mind. I didn't know what do, how to react. I didn't know what to think. I tried to remember what had happened before I had gotten 'here', whatever this place was.

A feeling suddenly flooded my entire being. A bittersweet feeling: happiness and sadness at the same time. What had happened? Why was I feeling like this?

An image flooded through my mind, occupying everything. I suddenly saw myself at Marineford, running towards my brother to save him from death. I started hearing the deafening sound of men battling and being killed at a fast pace. I was running towards my brother, overcoming everyone trying to stop me with the help of my friends. I smiled as I felt the nervousness and the determination running through my veins again with every pulse of my heart.

Suddenly another image flashed through my mind, erasing all trace of the last one. I was on top of the execution platform, so close to saving Ace, and yet Kizaru had destroyed the key to Ace's handcuffs. Suddenly Sengoku attacked us with his devil fruit power, and I immediately saw myself protecting Ace together with the help of Mr3. A few seconds passed, and suddenly I was falling towards the ground with Ace and Mr3. His handcuffs were still on. Marines were pointing at us with guns. They shot at us, and before I knew it I had managed to free Ace.

A smile immediately found its way to my face as I remembered this. I had managed to do it. I had freed Ace and stopped his execution. I had managed to do what I had proposed myself to do, and no one had managed to stop me. No one.

Suddenly another image appeared. I was fighting with Ace, and he told me that he would protect me. Whitebeard suddenly announced something. I couldn't understand or remember exactly what he had said. It was as if this was a movie without any kind of sound. All of the pirates cried, Ace replied something with deep emotion and suddenly we were running away. We were still together, but the feeling of happiness quickly disappeared as Akainu appeared in the scene. He said something with a cocky and clearly harming tone of voice. Ace turned around, furious. More seconds passed, and suddenly... and suddenly...

I sat up, with tears in my eyes. I didn't want to remember. I didn't want to. I felt tears starting to fall from my eyes, stopping me from seeing any of the nature that surrounded me. Where was I? I didn't care. I could only remember now where I had been, what had happened. Ace had... Ace had...!

"He promised to never die!" I said with a low tone of voice as I continued crying, neither managing to stop myself from crying nor wanting to.

I stayed in that position, not changing a single bit. It was then when I felt someone's presence behind me.

_"It was a shame that you didn't manage to save me, right?"_ I heard the figure of Ace behind me say with a sad tone of voice.

I jumped on my feet and ran towards him.

"Ace!" I shouted, thinking that my brother really _was_ there.

I jumped towards him, the tears still flowing down my cheeks. I couldn't manage to smile, I couldn't understand what was happening, but Ace was there... right? I was centimetres away from him, I opened my arms, prepared to hug him in that way that I had always done and that he hated. Suddenly I saw myself falling right through him and his figure disappearing.

_ "It was a shame that you didn't manage to save me Luffy" _He said._ "It was a shame that... you weren't strong enough..."_ He then said, before vanishing completely and leaving me in the cold and heartless darkness that had been surrounding me before.

I suddenly cracked my eyes open. "A dream?" I muttered as I remembered what I had just seen. Yes, it had been a dream. I suddenly remembered what had happened, what I had seen in the dream and how Akainu had attacked us. Yes, Ace was... Ace was... I suddenly found myself standing on my feet, crying harder that I had ever cried. I shouted something, feeling myself fall into deep desperation and sadness. I then fell on my knees.

"I wasn't strong enough" I muttered several times over.

Yes. I hadn't been strong enough. If only I had been stronger I would have managed to... I had said that I would be the Pirate King. What had I been thinking? I hadn't even managed to save Ace, so how could I possibly...? I remained there for a lot of time, ignoring the sounds of the animals around me and the footsteps that slowly approximated me.

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Author note: I first though titling this chapter "Alternate ending" truly, I have thought a lot about what I should do at this point. I would reach this point of the series eventually, and I wasn't sure if I should end it here or continue with an AU. In the end, I decided to continue this story as an AU. I'm sorry if you don't like AUs, but I can't really bring myself to end the story right here (it is too depressing and I don't want to end this in a depressing way, besides, this story has been a lot of fun to write), so that is why you'll see a new chapter coming out soon for this (^_^) Special thanks to _animatedrose _for all of the help =D *hugs* By the way, sorry for any inaccuracies on the story and on the descriptions of these anime and manga chapters. I hate being innacurate, but I really didn't want to see them again, so I just did my best here.


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